Standardization efforts at work – between powerful and powerless
An empirical investigation of the route planning system and its effects in Post Danmark, the Danish postal service
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/tfa.v15i4.108948Abstract
Inspired by Actor Network theory the article looks into the route planning system introduced in Post Danmark, in order to investigate the specific effects of its standardization effort. Arguing against a traditional Taylorist reading, as well as the humanist and often ideological critique raised alongside it, the article argues that standardization and its consequences should be considered from a far more pragmatic standpoint. Counter to the overall rationalistic program of the route planning system, the detailed empirical analysis of the route planning system shows how much additional effort it takes from a variety of actors for the system to actually standardize work, and in addition, how fragile this network of distributed action in fact is. The article concludes that standardization in Post Danmark only works because of its intimate relation with post-bureaucratic management techniques, represented by the active engagement and self-management of local leaders and postal workers. A conclusion, which invites an analytic shift in how we choose to conceptualize standardization: from its program rationality to the specific negotiations and delegations going on between humans and non-humans affording the power (or powerlessness) of work standardization in practice.
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